1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to computer processing and information manipulation. More specifically, aspects of the present invention relate to a directional input device that is associated with orientation of a corresponding display, and to changing the image orientation of a display screen. The invention has application to computing devices having displays with a plurality of orientation modes and to a directional input device, such as a mouse wheel or a touch pad.
2. Description of Related Art
Typical computer systems, especially computer systems using graphical user interface (GUI) systems such as Microsoft WINDOWS, are optimized for accepting user input from one or more discrete input devices, such as a keyboard for entering text and a pointing device such as a mouse with one or more buttons for driving the user interface. The ubiquitous keyboard and mouse interface provides for fast creation and modification of documents, spreadsheets, database fields, drawings, photos and the like.
Some computer systems permit a user to write on a screen using, for example, a stylus. For instance, the Microsoft READER application permits one to add electronic ink to a document much the same way that a user would write with a standard pen and paper. Most hand-held computing devices, commonly known as Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), also permit the user to write on the screen. Many of these computing devices are designed to support switching the electronic display between two orientation modes rotated ninety degrees from each other, such as a portrait mode and a landscape mode.
In addition to receiving inputs from the stylus, some of these stylus-entry systems are designed for use both with and without auxiliary input devices, such as a keyboard or a mouse. These auxiliary input devices may include directional input devices, such as a scroll wheel, which can be useful for scrolling a displayed image in linear direction. However, such a directional input device has limited ability to work in both display orientations. They are typically arranged for a default display orientation, such as the portrait mode, and do not work well in the alternate display mode.
The display orientation of these dual-mode display systems is switched via a soft key or via selection of an appropriate menu command. However, these known switch mechanisms are unduly complicated or do not provide the user with a quick and easy way to switch between the display orientations. Further, these systems lack indicators that readily identify the current orientation state of the display. Instead, they rely upon user recognition of the display image to determine its present orientation.